Claymore New age Rise of the Queen of Blades
by voider
Summary: Centuries after the events from Claymore, Lucy becomes a hybrid. However, her body is shared with another-Riful. Yuri
1. Chapter 1 Rebirth

**Claymore - New Age - Rise of the Queen of Blades**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Claymore.

**Summary**: Centuries after the events from Claymore, Lucy becomes a hybrid. However, her body is shared with another - Riful.

**Claymore - New Age - Rise of the Queen of Blades**

**-x-x-x-**

**Prologue.**

**-x-x-x-**

Centuries ago, the world was consumed by death and war. On the main continent, two warring factions arose. One side allied to powerful beings – the dragon kin. The other side, searched for a weapon powerful enough to fight them. And they found it. They used the dragon kin to create half-human hybrids. But the hybrids had a weakness. Sometimes, they lost themselves. They awakened. And they killed anything in their path.

Searching for a way to tame the hybrids, they found a smaller continent and formed an Organization. They experimented. They created yoma – monsters that ate humans. Using and manipulating legends, the organization convinced the population of the continent that yoma always existed. They created hybrid warriors to destroy the yoma, gaining income and data.

But the warriors still had the curse of the yoma. Most of them had a life expectancy of seven years. After that, their yoma side begun to overwhelm them. They would Awaken and loose their humanity.

For a long time this continued, until renegade warriors rebelled. With the help of the Holy city of Rabona, they defeated the organization and the Abyssal Ones – the most powerful Awakened Beings.

In the years to come, tired of war, the warring countries decided to make peace, stop making hybrids and destroy the yoma, who became rampant on every continent. But it was too late. There was no way to go back. They needed the hybrid warriors to keep killing the yoma.

A peace treaty was signed. Every country would have their own hybrid warriors. They would hunt the yoma and awakened beings, but they would never be used in war again.

The warriors reward for their work and sacrifice was that they could retire after 15 years of service. Every Country had a territory given to the claymores.

On the continent with the city of Rabona as its capital, the North was given to the warriors. It was a cold and inhospitable place. The human population from the North was already gone because of the war. The North would belong to the hybrids. However, in the next few decades, it was decided that once the hybrids retired from service and went to the dreary North, they would have to stay there. They were exiled from humanity.

Centuries later, history was forgotten.

**-x-x-x-**

**Chapter 1.**

**-x-x-x-**

Lucy was woken by a scream. It was her mother's.

Her older sister burst through the door. "Lucy! Hide under the bed. Yoma!"

Lucy obeyed her older sister and rushed under the bed after picking the dagger her sister gave her. It was her secret present. When no one was around, they would train in secret. Her parents didn't approve of her sister's "hobby".

When the yoma came through the door, her sister attacked him with her sword. But it was in vain. Lucy watched her sister's body drop to the floor. She wanted to kill the monster, but she knew it would be futile. The yoma killed her powerful sister, the strongest person she knew.

Suddenly, the girl's cover disappeared. The yoma picked up the bed as if it weighed nothing. She was frozen for a split second, but then she remembered her sister's advice. 'if you can't win, run.' Before she made three steps, she felt her strength leaving her. She saw two… arrows … Or fingers? … passing through her torso. They withdrew and she fell on her back.

The yoma kneeled on top of her. "So, she sacrificed herself to protect you," laughed the yoma. "Such tender flesh," it said.

Lucy was dieing. 'I wish I could take you with me,' she thought. She clenched her fists and realized she still had her dagger in her right hand. Lucy plunged the knife in the yoma's neck, hitting the spine, cutting it. She wrenched the dagger right, cutting half of the neck. 'The yoma looks so surprised,' she mused. Lucy sliced again, making sure of the kill. The yoma fell on top of her, bleeding all over her wounds.

**-x-x-x-**

Lucy opened her eyes. She was in an unfamiliar bed.

"You live," said the village elder. He looked displeased. "It's quite the miracle. Those wounds should have killed you. The man in black will come tomorrow. They'll take you to the East."

"But…"

"But nothing girl. Your family is dead and you survived. You're yoma touched. Be thankful that we healed you."

Lucy knew that even if she begged, she would not be listened. They would send her to the claymores. And if she survived the change, she would save ungrateful little shits like him from yoma.

**-x-x-x-**

Lucy was taken to the East, to Sutafu. They took her to a dark room and they did something to her. They put something in her. Then they threw her in a cell. "It hurts," she cried. "It hurts so much."

'It will pass, little one,' said a voice. 'Here, let me help you. Breathe deeply. Calm down. It is only pain. Don't fight it. It will pass.'

Lucy listened to the voice. Soon she felt the pain fade. "Thank you…"

'Riful.'

"Thank you, Riful," she whispered.

'Sleep, little one. You must sleep.'

Lucy smiled happily and went to sleep.

**-x-x-x-**

The next morning, a caretaker pushed a bowl of food in the cell.

Lucy's stomach turned at the smell of food.

'You must eat, little one.'

"Riful?"

'Yes, you do not need to speak aloud; just think, and I will hear. It would not be a good idea for the man in black to know about us.'

'Oh, do you hear me?' thought Lucy.

'Yes, I do. Now eat. I know you do not want to, but you must.'

'Okay.' Lucy took a mouthful of food. She expected that the food would make her nauseous, but instead, it made her aware of how famished she was. She finished the food and sighed in pleasure.

'Very good, little one. Now, go back to sleep. You need it.'

Lucy nodded and promptly fell asleep.

**-x-x-x-**

The process of eating and sleeping continued for weeks. Always, Riful was there for Lucy. She always had a loving word of encouragement. Sometimes the pain would start again, but Riful was always there for her.

**-x-x-x-**

One day, Lucy woke without feeling any pain.

'Good morning, little one. I see that you feel better.'

Lucy smiled and stretched on the bed. 'Yes, thank you Riful. Without you, I don't know what I would have done.'

'Now that you recovered from the change, you must have questions.'

'Yes, you seem to be so knowledgeable about everything. Since you told me not to speak aloud, I assume that me being able to hear you, is not common. What are you? What happened?'

'First, you were changed by using yoma flesh and blood. You are now a hybrid. Yoma have a kind of genetic memory. Skills, memories, even personalities can be passed down the generation. Usually it's only the basic skills and racial memories. Somehow, my entire memory and personality was passed down to you, more precisely, to your body. Somehow, we now share one body. One part is Lucy, and the other Riful.'

'So… you are a yoma?'

'No, I was a hybrid like you. But our kind is cursed. We are half human, half yoma. We can keep the yoma side at bay for a time, but one day it consumes us. We awaken. Yoma instincts take precedence and we become what we hunt.'

'So you were an…'

'Yes, I am… no, I was an Awakened Being. The new me does not have the yoma instincts. I do not hunger for human flesh.'

'I see… so now what? Don't you want your own body?'

'You are worried that I am actually an evil Awakened and I want to take over your body,' stated Riful.

'No…yes… maybe.'

'I can only promise that I do not. I am contended in sharing. We are symbiotic_._ You need me and I need you. Even if I wanted my own body, I do not think a battle between our wills would be beneficial. I am actually in favor of our situation. We are extremely lucky.'

'Why?'

'When we go in battle, we can use our yoki. It can make us faster, more powerful, it gives us many abilities. However, if we use more than 80 percent of it, we usually, no longer control ourselves and we awaken. You are still inexperienced, so you cannot feel it yet, but we have very similar, but different yoki.'

'So, what does that mean?'

'it means that the risk of awakening is much smaller. It may even be that we can become immune to it. If you are on the verge of Awakening, I may be able to bring you back. It may even be possible that together, we can awaken and still preserve our humanity. Together, we can escape the curse.'

'Oh, okay.'

'So, you believe me?'

'Yes, I believe you, Riful.'

'I am glad. Can we be friends? Once, when I was young, I had friends.'

Lucy smiled. 'Of course. And since we are… blood related, we are more than friends. We are family.'

**-x-x-x-**

'I will begin to teach you how to use your yoki. You were probably hurting too much to notice, but I used yoki to soothe your pain when you were changing. Close your eyes. Relax. Clear your mind. Now, I will use my yoki. Can you feel it?'

'Yes. I think I feel something, but it's very faint.'

'Do not worry, little one. It takes time to be able to fully use your yoki. We shall practice daily. Yoki manipulation is the most important skill you have.'

**-x-x-x**

'Soon, they will begin our training,' said Riful. 'We must be careful. I do not trust them. Even if the old organization from my time is truly gone, it seams that a similar parasite took its place. There are a few things that will put us un more danger than fighting a dozen Awakened. The first one is that they find out about me. The second is insubordination. And the third is being too smart. One of the most important things you must learn is control. Letting the men in black know our true feelings would be a very bad idea.'

'I know Riful. I won't disappoint you.'

'I know, Lucy. I'm sorry … I think I am a little nervous.'

**-x-x-x-**

Finally, the first day of training came. Lucy was part of a group of ten girls. Some of them seemed to still be in pain, while others looked fine.

An instructor came and gave them oversized swords.

Since Riful taught Lucy a bit of yoki manipulation, she was able to wield the sword without too much trouble. Coupled to the skills imparted to her by her sister, the girl was easily the best of the group. Riful also gave her many important pointers.

Lucy and Riful decided that, for their safety, Lucy would put the mask of an antisocial, uncaring, introverted girl. She could have put the mask of obedience, but they didn't think they could stomach it. The old organization always loved the obedient, the insane and uncaring antisocial warriors. The new organization probably had the same views.

**-x-x-x-**

**Author's Note:** Hoped you liked it

_Reviews are welcomed (anonymous too)._

Thank you for reading.

Published: September 27 2008.

Edited: February 07 2008.

-voider-

**-x-x-x-**


	2. Chapter 2 Graduation

**-x-x-x-**

**Chapter 2.**

**Graduation.**

**-x-x-x-**

Years passed. Lucy turned fourteen. She was easily the strongest in her group.

One of the trainers came and stopped their practice. He called Lucy's group and told them to come after him.

Forty minutes later, they stopped in front of a man in black and a Claymore. The trainer grunted something and left.

"Today is your graduation day," said the man in black, "... for one of you that is. Those of you who are fortunate enough to survive will go back to training. The task is simple. There is a yoma in the forest. Your mission is to kill it. Only one of you can graduate. Bring us the head and you pass. That is all. Go."

The trainees nodded and ran in the forest.

'So this is the new test,' said Riful.

Lucy knew the tone. 'What is it?'

'In my time, we had a graduation as well. We however, were not told that we would be facing a yoma.'

'That is good, isn't it?'

'Not really, little one. We were split into two teams. We were told that the winning team would graduate. We were not told that we also had a yoma to defeat. Usually, the two teams would fight each other and the yoma would kill the weakened trainees after one team lost. Sometimes all the trainees died. Sometimes one survived. But sometimes two or three trainees would fight as a team. These bonds - forged by battle survived a lifetime. What we have here ... is something else. Tell me your thoughts.'

Lucy thought for a minute, checking her surroundings at the same time, for any signs of yoki. 'Only one of us graduates. This will make the chance of a group working together much smaller. The first results will be more deaths than we would have if we all worked together as a team. They are culling us.'

'Very good. Next?'

'It might be possible that some will work as a group, but as only one of us will graduate, as soon as the yoma dies, the winners will fight each other.'

Riful gave Lucy a mental nod. 'Continue.'

'There is something else. The man in black said that we must bring back the head to graduate. It does not matter who kills the yoma. It only matters who brings the head. The others will try to defeat the winner and steal the head.'

'Very good. Our opponent is not only the yoma, but our comrades too. Some will bravely hunt the yoma. Others will stay back and steal the head just after the yoma dies. Others will stay near the man in black and try to ambush us. These are all immediate consequences. But what does this type of graduation mean in the long run? How does this affect the Claymores in the long run?'

'Well ... first, those bonds that are created between comrades fighting together are not formed. Even more, instead of friendship, trainees will hate each other. Most likely, this mentality will carry in the future. Claymores will not trust each other; they will not work well together. There is more...'

'Yes. Why are they doing this? Why do they not want Claymores that care for their companions?'

'Maybe they are afraid of tightly knit group of Claymores,' answered Lucy after a few seconds of deep thought. 'This test decreases the trust between trainees. If one of us rebels against the Organization, she will have less support from the trainees due to the loss of trust.'

'Excellent, little one. They may be trying to prevent any potential large-scale revolutions. There is something else. This would be a perfect opportunity of using an Eye and spy on us. What we do today, how we behave, our choices and tactics will show a lot about us. The way we behave in this battle will show them how we tick. It's a basic test done while we are young and gullible. They will know who the noble and brave ones are; or the cunning; or the cowards; or the insane;'

'Are you sure, Riful? Are we not over thinking it?'

'Perhaps, but this is something I would expect the old organization to do. It is better if we err on the side of caution.'

Lucy nodded absentmindedly, while checking her surroundings. She could feel the other nine trainees, but she did not feel the yoma.

'What is your plan, little one?'

'Straightforward. Try to find the yoma and kill it. Avoid the others and complete my mission. I have an advantage - I can feel their positions. If the yoma fights with one of them, he'll stop suppressing his yoki and I'll know... talking about the wolf...north.'

Lucy sped through the forests, towards the new yoki. She felt one of her comrades' fade from her awareness. She arrived in the clearing where the battle took place and looked at the broken body.

Riful sent her a mental caress. 'She is gone, little one. There is nothing we can do.'

'I never liked her, but...'

'I know. We trained with her for six years. Let's go.'

Lucy nodded sadly and sped towards the faint trace of the yoma. He was fighting two trainees. Suppressing her yoki as much as she could, she looked at the battle. The yoma was not fighting. He was playing. The two trainees were outclassed. They had multiple cuts, but they were still fighting.

'You could kill the yoma while he is not paying attention. It would be easy.'

'I could, but I won't.'

'Why is that, little one?'

'First, I would not want it known that I am capable of ... assassination. Second, I have never fought a yoma. It will be good practice.' Lucy stepped in the clearing where the yoma was fighting.

The yoma finally sensed her and jumped out of the way. Seeing there was no attack, he sneered. "Stupid little girl. You missed your chance. Had you attacked, you would have injured me."

Lucy drew her claymore and looked at the two trainees. "You two, get out of here. I said go!"

"How brave, it will be your undoing," said the yoma after the two girls left. Seeing that Lucy remained quiet, the yoma sped towards her, preparing to impale her with his right hand.

Lucy sidestepped the punch and cut down.

The yoma stared for a few moments at his detached arm, flying towards the forest. "You're going to pay for this, bitch," snarled the yoma while looking at the bleeding stump.

"No, I won't." Lucy's sword flashed again and the yoma's head fell down. 'Well, how did I do?' she asked Riful.

'It was acceptable.'

'Acceptable? I killed him in two strikes.'

'I could do it in one.'

'Oh.'

'Don't pout. You did great. I am proud of you. Now, grab the head and let's go.'

Lucy nodded, grabbed the head and sped towards the Claymores yoki, while avoiding the other trainees. Just before she reached her destination, she felt three yoki sources interposing between her and the claymore.

Lucy stepped into the clearing and saw the three. "What do you want?"

"The head."

"No, it's mine."

"Not any longer."

"Guys, do you really think you can take me on? You never managed to do that, even when you ganged up on me."

"It doesn't matter. We're fresh for battle. You're not."

"Hey, Mr. man-in-black, aren't you going to say anything about this?"

"No, not really," he responded in a bored tone.

"Very well," Lucy sighed. "Come and get me."

The three trainees surrounded Lucy and tried to hit her at the same time.

Lucy rushed forward, dodged the claymore and hit the first girl's stomach with the hilt of her sword. 'One down.' While the girl was in the process of falling down, Lucy turned around and parried two swords. Using her momentum, she gave a spinning kick to the head of the second girl. 'Two down.' She parried another swing with extra power, making the last girl loose her balance, stepped forward and hit her back with the flat of her sword. 'Three down.' Lucy glanced at the man in black and at his Claymore companion. They were both blank faced.

'What did you expect?'

'They could be a little impressed.'

'I don't see why. We are very powerful, but we still hid much of our power. What we did is something that even the weakest Claymore is capable.'

'Yeah.' Lucy sheathed her claymore, walked towards the man in black and threw the head of the yoma at their feet.

"You pass, follow me," he said and walked away. The claymore went after him and Lucy followed behind her.

'Riful, is she an Eye?'

'I do not think so. She appears to be a medium-ranked warrior. In my time, the Eye was a single digit. I wonder why she is here.'

'Maybe she is a bodyguard.'

'Perhaps ... we shall see.'

**-x-x-x-**

Forty minutes later, they were in an administrative building. They arrived at an office. There was another claymore waiting.

"Stay here," said the man to Lucy and the new Claymore.

The hunter from the forest followed the man in his office. Lucy leaned on the wall, closed her eyes and opened her senses, listening on the conversation inside the office.

"Those two are your apprentices. The one that graduated today is Lucy. She's extremely fast, moderate strength, moderate stamina. Her yoki sensing abilities are very good. She can also hide her yoki to a certain extent. All in all, she has the ability to become a strong warrior. Not a single digit, but the next best thing - maybe a number twenty. She's calm and level-headed, reasonably intelligent, doesn't have any friends."

"I see. Why is she not an Eye?"

"As you know, an Eye needs certain qualities. Lucy is smart, but not smart enough. Also, she does not possess the necessary power."

"I see, she's good ... and the other one?"

"Lilith ... extremely strong and fast, large stamina. Good yoki sensing abilities. She has the ability to become a single digit. Maybe even a number one."

"Sounds promising."

"Not really. She's a bloodthirsty sociopath; insane, antisocial and paranoid. She and her previous master ran into a group of yoma. Only Lilith survived, but she almost Awakened ... she is a high risk."

"I see. Anything else?"

"Yes, there are reasons you got both of them together. We hope that Lucy will rub off on Lilith. But the most important one is that one year ago, one of Lucy's comrades tried to use her yoki. She was untrained and almost lost control, but Lucy knocked her out before she went over her limits."

"I see, you hope that Lucy can keep Lilith under control."

**-x-x-x-**

Lucy opened her eyes and looked at Lilith. Lucy was small for her age. Riful called her petite. But the girl in front of her was even smaller. 'She looks so innocent ... so fragile, like a porcelain doll. It is hard to believe she is an insane killing machine.'

'Looks can be deceiving. I should know. After all, in my previous life, I was an Abyssal One and my human form was an innocent-looking girl.'

**-x-x-x-**

**Author's Notes:** As you realize, this is a somewhat different world. I am ... reinventing it. We will see what happened after centuries; what happened to a continent dominated by the church in comparison to a continent dominated by the Organization.

We will see that the number of Claymores changed (it increased) and why.

_Reviews are much appreciated (anonymous too)._

Thank you for reading and reviewing.

Published: October 26 2008.

Edited: February 07 2008.

-voider-

**-x-x-x-**


	3. Chapter 3 Travel

**-x-x-x-**

**Chapter 3.**

**Travel.**

**-x-x-x-**

Lucy opened her eyes and looked at Lilith. Lucy was small for her age. Riful called her petite. But the girl in front of her was even smaller. 'She looks so innocent ... so fragile, like a porcelain doll. It is hard to believe she is an insane killing machine.'

'Looks can be deceiving. I should know. After all, in my previous life, I was an Abyssal One and my human form was an innocent-looking girl.'

'Yes, but look at her. She looks like an angel.'

'Yes, she does. However, she is unstable. I believe we must be careful around her. Anyway, what did you think about their talk?'

'It seams we were successful in hiding the extent of our abilities. This apprentice thing is interesting. Perhaps it makes our little theory from the forest void. After all, having a master-apprentice relationship would result in an opposite compared to the test.'

'Perhaps, little one. But keep in mind that having an apprentice might be an old tradition. The particulars of the graduation test might be something introduced recently. Perhaps it was different in the past. In any case, we will listen and gather data for now. We have too little information.'

The office door opened and the man in black and the Claymore came out.

"Lucy," he said, "this is your new uniform."

Lucy took the armored uniform from the man and nodded.

"You - Lucy and Lilith will be apprenticed under Ariel, number 36. That is all," he said and left.

"Come," said Ariel "We have a long journey ahead of us."

The apprentices followed silently.

'Riful, you said she is an average hunter, but she is number 36.'

'Yes. This means one of two things. One is that warriors are much stronger in this age; that is unlikely. The second is that there are more than 47 hunters. Our number probably doubled or tripled. Based on what I saw until now, I would lean toward the second possibility.'

**-x-x-x-**

The three hunters walked in silence the rest of the day. Before nightfall, Ariel drew her claymore and threw it in some bushes, killing a rabbit. "We will camp here," she said as she walked towards the rabbit. She made a fire and cooked the small animal.

After the rabbit began to cook, Ariel drove her claymore into the ground, in front of the fire. Lucy and Lilith followed her example.

"I think I should properly introduce myself. I am Ariel - number 36. I received my number two years ago. You are assigned to me as my apprentices. This means that it's my job to show you the ropes. We are assigned to a sector in the west, so it will take us some time to get there. Any questions?"

"I have some questions. Do we have a number?" asked Lucy.

"No you do not. You will stay with me for one or two years. After that, you'll get a number, if you survive."

"I see. How many Hunters are there?"

"There are one hundred Hunters who have a number. Also, there are at least fifty unranked Hunters like you and Lilith. Usually, they are paired with lower ranked numbers."

"One hundred and fifty ... isn't that too many?" Lucy asked.

Ariel shook her head. "It may seem so, but it is not. The continent is divided in five areas: the Center, East, West, South and the North. All of them, with the exception of the north have at least one major city and a few big ones. They always have at least a Hunter permanently stationed in them. Rabona - the capital of the continent has up to ten Claymores, with one or two of them being a single digit. The smaller cities and towns must wait for a patrol or send a request if there is a yoma. The larger cities are also gathering points and serve as reserves. In the past, our numbers were lower, but that meant that sometimes we even had to walk for weeks until we reached our destination. Having a higher number of hunters allows us to react faster to the needs of the humans."

'It is different from how it was in my time,' Riful said thoughtfully. 'It is also a good strategy. A few awakened beings could raze a city in only a few hours. Stationing Hunters in strategic locations like big cities is a very smart move.'

After a long silence, Ariel took the rabbit from the fire. She took a small piece for herself, cut the rest in half and gave the bigger pieces to Lucy and Lilith.

Ariel nibbled on her small amount of food, but Lilith practically devoured it.

' Riful? She is eating even more than I do when I'm hungry.'

'When one becomes a hybrid, the need and instinct for food mostly disappears,' Riful replied. 'You eat more than normal hybrids for two reasons: the first, I believe, is due to our unique situation; and the second is that I made you eat a lot of food and you got used to it. Usually, warriors lose the appetite for food as soon as their bodies begin to Change. They have no one to tell them to eat. After the many weeks of isolation, they begin to get accustomed to eating extremely small amounts of food. Their bodies adapt to the lack of food and the only times they eat more than they are used to it, is when they are injured.'

'Yes, but she isn't like us. And she eats even more than I do.'

Lucy could feel the sadness radiating from Riful. 'In my previous life, I met many of our kind. Those who ate as much as her all had something in common: they were close to becoming an Awakened One.'

'I see,' Lucy said sadly.

'Since we will be with her for the next two years, we must be careful. I think this can be a good opportunity little one. If we manage to somehow prevent her Awakening, we will come one step closer to us becoming immune to the instincts that take control after Awakening. Perhaps we can even save her from the curse.'

While Lucy and Riful were having their silent compensation, Lilith finished her food, but she still looked hungry. Lucy cut her piece in half and gave one of them to Lilith with a slight smile. "Here, I can't eat it all and you seem to be hungry."

The girl stared for a second at the offering; she glanced at Lucy for a long moment, and then took the food and begun to eat it.

**-x-x-x-**

For two weeks, the three travelers walked towards the center of the continent without stopping in any of the villages they passed by. Neither of the two young apprentices complained on sleeping under the stars.

It was certainly better than the cold cells in Sutafu and the three hunters did not relish the thought of sleeping among humans, though none of them said anything.

When they neared another village, Ariel stopped and frowned while staring in its direction.

Lucy, realizing Ariel sensed something, extended her senses.

"Lucy? What did you sense?" Ariel asked.

"There is a faint yoki in the direction of the village. Is it another Hunter or is it a yoma?"

"I do not know," Ariel replied nonchalantly. "We shall see."

The three travelers headed towards the village.

As soon as they entered it, they stopped and tried to find the source of the yoki.

"What do we do now?" Lucy asked.

"We head to the church," Aria answered.

Lucy and Lilith followed their master through the village, ignoring the frightened looks of the villagers.

'It is an interesting change.' Riful said when they entered the church.

'What?' Lucy inquired.

'After all this time, we still take orders from the men in black, only now they are also priests besides their more unsavory skills. The men in black of that time were not very nice. In fact, in some ways they were worse than the yoma. Are these guys better? Did the mantle of the church change the old organization for the better?'

'The legends say that the old organization was destroyed,' Lucy said.

'They do. But I see too many similarities to them. I do not know what happened all those centuries ago, but it is unlikely they were completely destroyed as the legends say; more likely, some of the members begun to work with the church. I do not think it was a hard change. Their clothes were already similar. All they had to do was to carry the Bible of the God of Rabona.'

A priest approached them. "Hunters," he said nodding. "What happened?"

"Father, is there another Hunter in the town?"

The priest shook his head grimly. "No."

"I see. There is a yoma in the town, then."

The priest grimaced. "I see. We do not have any victim as far as I know. Let us hope you can kill the yoma before it does."

Aria nodded. "We shall search for the yoma then."

The three hunters exited the church and glanced around the village, searching for the source of the yoma.

Aria frowned slightly. "The yoma is good at hiding his yoki. Since the two of you seem capable of dealing with a single yoma, we will split and search for our target. I will take the north side of the village; you will search the south."

Lucy nodded in confirmation, but Lilith gave no sign of confirmation; she just headed toward the south side of the village.

**-x-x-x-**

The two apprentices wondered through the streets of the town. Whenever someone saw them, they fearfully moved out of their path.

Lucy glanced at her companion whenever she heard the mutterings of the humans. While Lucy had Riful as a companion and friend, thus keeping her sane (in their opinion), the rest of the Hunters did not. Taking Lilith's behavior into consideration, it was doubtful Lilith had any friends or any form of positive feelings, relationships or memories. 'Dealing with scorn, fear and hate from the people you protect is quite saddening, especially when you have no one to anchor you like I did,' she said.

'This is always the fate of the more unstable warriors,' Riful agreed sadly. 'This especially happens with the very strong. Too much power is usually accompanied with some form of instability. No one would risk getting close to them, because even experienced, powerful Hunters are afraid of the strong and unstable. Those who are unfortunate like her, who lack any form of positive reinforcement from anyone become more and more unstable. This results in more fear from their peers, which leads to even more instability. It is a vicious, unending circle.'

Their silent conversation was interrupted by their arrival into the marketplace. 'The yoma is here,' Lucy said, feeling the yoma's yoki in the vicinity.

'Yes,' Riful replied.

Lilith begun to breathe deeper, faster, and Lucy turned her head towards her comrade. The perpetual stony, angelic look on Lilith's face was changed into a bloodthirsty grin that made even Riful shudder. She was grinning like a sociopath, staring at a man and licking her lips in anticipation.

**-x-x-x-**

**Author's Note**: Sorry for the late update...

Thank you for reading and reviewing. Any input would be appreciated.

Published: February 07 2008.

-voider-

**-x-x-x-**


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